Memories Raised from the Dead
by Silmedin
Summary: Twenty years after her disappearance, a letter from Buffy arrives. It is addressed to Willow and reveals what happened to make her leave her family.
1. Remembrance

Memories Raised from the Dead  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of this characters except for Chastity. Reviews: Please review!  
  
Part One: Remembrance Sometimes, while Oz is asleep, I stay awake and reflect on my life, namely my life while Buffy was around. I remember her carefree way of life, but that didn't last long. Her optimistic manner completely disappeared after her seventeenth birthday. I watched Buffy's face while Angelus held me hostage, as he mocked their one night of pure happiness. I saw the innocence and happiness that had once radiated from her like light from the sun disappear.  
  
Several months later, part of Buffy's spirit returned to her. But while she lacked that fire that made her Buffy, she wasn't Buffy: to everyone around her, she seemed like the hollow shell of a person to whom we had once looked to when we needed to be cheered up. As Xander once put it, "She lost the Buffyness that makes her Buffy." I guess that one, made-up word is the only one that could ever accurately describe her spirit: Buffyness.  
  
In time, Angel returned, but I believe that everyone knew that Angel returning to Buffy only made the pain worse for her. I try to put myself in her shoes, to imagine how I would feel if knew that I could never be with Oz. Their reunion didn't last long: Angel left after Graduation. In some ways, it was the best thing that he could've done. But in another way, he might as well have just shoved a sword into her heart. One time, during that summer after Graduation, Buffy concluded, in her own words, "When Angel left, I felt like he had taken my heart with him." And he did. At first I was mad at him for doing this right after one of the most traumatic events of Buffy's short life: Graduation.  
  
Now there's a topic that certainly bothered her. It was among several. But this time, one of the people that was supposed to fight the evil joined them. It wasn't like most times, this was something that struck very near Buffy's heart, I believe. Faith Micohen, the Slayer called after Kendra, came to town. She was extreme, and this intrigued us Slayerettes. We practically ignored Buffy for the first few days that Faith was in town. Soon, though, we found Faith too radical. Then we began to ignore Faith. I've come to this conclusion, however discriminatory it may be: Slayers are naturally very mentally unstable. Faith joined the Mayor's side after killing Mayor Wilkins's secretary. Two days before Graduation, Faith shot Angel with a poisoned arrow. The only cure for it was for Angel to drink the blood of a Slayer. So, Buffy went after Faith. Following a battle in which Buffy stabbed Faith in the gut and Faith jumped off her apartment roof, Buffy forced Angel to drink her blood, thus saving Angel from death. She almost lost her life because Angel lost control, but she lived. Two days later, Buffy and the school beat the mayor. The Mayor is now ashes at the old Sunnydale High School. Angel left right after the battle. He didn't even say goodbye.  
  
Tragedy continually followed Buffy for as long as we knew her. Birthdays were almost never kind to Buffy. When she turned 17, Angel lost his soul. On her eighteenth birthday, Giles was forced to render Buffy helpless as any normal mortal, and pit her against a deranged vampire. Her nineteenth birthday was pretty much the only one that was pleasant for her. The next year, Buffy was lying flat on a hospital bed, in a coma. Buffy had been out on a date with Riley for New Year's Eve, and their car had been struck by a drunk driver. By the time the police got there, Riley had fled the scene, and Buffy was unconscious in the passenger seat. We all assume now that Riley had struck another car, but we've never found him. Buffy refused to speak about it. Her twenty-first birthday was meant to be the most amazing: I restored Angel's humanity. Her happiness, however, was cut off by her mother's untimely death from a heart attack. That was the last one that we celebrated with her.  
  
Most of the time, I feel cheated, by fate, by life, perhaps even by Buffy. Most of all, I feel deprived of my best friend. Buffy had one of the most kindred souls that the world will ever know, and I was only given five years to know her. I envy her father: Mr. Summers was given twenty-one years with her. I know most of us feel the same. I remember how many, many times she took a blow for me. Once, during the fall of our Sophomore year of college, Buffy shoved me out of the path of a moving car. She was confined to a wheelchair for three weeks with a broken leg and some cracked ribs. The doctors say that it was remarkable that she had not been killed: the car had been going 45 mph.  
  
Now we get to her disappearance. That part's always the hardest to remember. Ensuing her mother's death, Buffy managed to continue her optimistic outlook. She and Angel got married, and had a baby girl, who Angel named Chastity. Then one day, Buffy and Chastity just disappeared. Chastity turned up in the arms of a girl whom Buffy had once helped, one whose past names included Chanterelle, Lily, and, finally, Anne. Anne simply showed up on Giles's front door, handed the baby to Giles, and left. We were having a conference on what might have happened. Giles immediately knew who the child was, and gave her to Angel. We never saw Anne again. 


	2. Today

Memories Raised from the Dead  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Chastity  
  
Reviews: I love reviews!  
  
Part Two: Today  
  
Ever since Buffy disappeared, Angel and Chastity have lived in a room over our garage. Angel is still, as Buffy once put it, "Cryptic Brooding Guy". He believes, as we all do, that Buffy was dead. His continuous faith in the notion that Buffy would never stay away from her child if she could help it supported that idea. Chastity is now a sophomore at UC Sunnydale. Right now, her favorite class is Psychology, the same as her mother. Her teacher is Buffy's ex-boyfriend, Scott Hope. Scott returned to Sunnydale after a short and useless career as a practicing psychologist, so he felt it was better to teach it.  
  
Cordelia and Xander helped Anya regain her demon form, and soon after that, Cordie and Xander got married. They have two gorgeous children, Jennifer and Jesse. Cordie is a great mother, as hard to imagine that may be. Xander is a teacher at the high school. Oddly enough, he teaches Trigonometry, his former least-liked class. I remember the day we met Buffy, and he was asking me for help in Trig. As for Cordie, what did we expect? Cordie is now a successful model, and she bought the Bronze a few years ago, with the help of Angel. Despite her dreams of becoming an actress, she really belongs a model. Directors can't stand her.  
  
As for Giles, he got his former post as librarian of Sunnydale High School back as soon as the new school was built. Giles is devoted to being a wonderful grandfather figure to Chastity. We all try to support Chastity. Sometimes, we get carried away telling Chastity stories of her mother. She loves to hear them. Her favorite is how Buffy met her father.  
  
Oz is famous now. Dingoes Ate My Baby got back together not long after Buffy disappeared. The first song that became a hit was called "An Angel Gone". Oz wrote it in tribute to Buffy. Then, we didn't know if she was alive or dead, so we figured that any way you look at it, Buffy would still see it. As for me, I bought a little computer manufacturer, and upgraded the products. Paradigm Software is now the leading computer manufacturer.  
  
I can't say enough about the girl that Chastity has grown up to be. She doesn't look a whole lot like her mother at first sight. Chastity inherited her father's height, hair, and skin. The only things that link Chastity to her mother are her emerald eyes, sarcastic wit, and optimistic tone. She isn't the Slayer, thank God. No, a new Slayer came to town two years after Buffy disappeared. Her name was Gertrude Evelheimer. Trudy, as we called her, lived only a year. Then the Council sent word to Giles that they could not risk the lives of anymore Slayers over the Hellmouth.  
  
What continues to amaze me is how much mail Buffy still receives. Letters come in from people that she barely knew in high school. They are letters of true gratitude. Every time Angel sees one, he burns it. He tells me, "They couldn't send these when she was here. She never got to see their appreciation." I try to copy down the addresses and send letters to the people who have sent letters to her. The letters that I send are simply sent to explain to them what happened to Buffy. Angel doesn't know I do this, but I have to. Those people are sincerely thankful. 


End file.
